USA Today, November 8, 2023, As Online Banking Grew, Mortgage Lending Regulations Didn’t Follow Suit. Until Now.
After nearly three decades, bank regulators have updated a 1977 law meant to undo the practice of redlining, a color-coded government-backed policy of discriminating against Black borrowers by deeming ? and literally outlining ? majority Black neighborhoods as “hazardous.”
The changes announced Tuesday, developed by the Federal Reserve, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., updates the law to be in sync with the digital age so regulators evaluate banks based not just on where they have a physical presence but also by where they do business via mobile and online banking.
“The rules that give that law teeth were last updated when the web was a brand-new thing,” said National Community Reinvestment Coalition President and CEO Jesse Van Tol. “This update is both long overdue and essential. Marginalized communities still suffer from a variety of inequities in mortgage and small business lending, and from the enduring effects of historic financial discrimination.”
